Great interview. Eric is very articulate here.
Some related points that can also be make on this matter:
The US govt supposedly is directed by the US constitution. There is no basis in that for military intervention in the internal politics of foreign nations, no matter how much we like or dislike the parties.
The UN and other NGOs are established to handle humanitarian crises, not the US military. The US could direct aid using neutral NGOs if requested. Not the Special Ops.
The US govt spent hundreds of millions, if not billions, to supposedly "train" Iraqis for democratic self rule and internal peacekeeping by the Iraqi military. That obviously was a hugely expensive failure. If a rump religious group like ISIS can overwhelm the expensively trained Iraqi government forces, then absent direct US rule there, there is no way minor tinkering or selective intervention can make any lasting changes. How many times can such US failure (see Afghanistan, Libya, etc) occur without the American public realizing this approach is unworkable.